Promoting yourself is gross. Promoting your ideas is giving. Promoting your solution to problems is a gift.

Every single solopreneur, bootstrapper, or founder that I know that is even remotely successful, all have one common trait: they write a lot.

If you're building your own product, and the only thing you've written thus far is code, your product is not to make it.

Why?

Building a product often isn't the hard part. You're starting with the easy part. The hard parts are finding your initial few customers (your mom/friends don't count), doing market research, finding PMF, etc.

And that requires you to write in human language, not code.

PS: prompting AI to write your code also doesn't count, that's lowkey still coding

Personal brands should be personal.

You know, like real people. With all the ups, downs, thoughts, decisions, hesitations, and observations that make human being relatable to their peers.

The secret to personal brands is deeply authentic relatability by being a whole person.

If you’re constantly reading without writing about what you consume, you’re over-estimating your knowledge retention. Writing is how you digest ideas. Knowledge can only seep from the head to the heart once you translate other people’s ideas into your own words.

I get asked a lot “How do you remember all that stuff you read?”

This is the answer. I write about it in a blog post, or I craft an interview with the author of the book on the podcast.

At a bare minimum, I at least try to share what I’ve been reading with a friend or family member in a conversation.

In my 25 years writing on the internet, I’ve been wrong about all sorts of things. This one wouldn’t even make the top 5. The fear of being seen as wrong is one of the key factors holding people back from trying new things, new thoughts, and, crucially, changing their mind.

Start writing today.

The most mind-blowing result of having written a weekly blog post for 200 weeks is that there's a pretty high chance I can answer almost any question with an article of mine.

Being able to share my thoughts explained in detail with just a URL is POWERFUL

People don't trust faceless organizations.

Add your face to your brand. A little overlap between personal and professional brand can make all the difference.

Be a human being in a world where people are looking for genuine and honest connections. Show your true and unique self.

“Writing is nature’s way of letting you know how sloppy your thinking is.” — Guindon

How to get started on the internet, in…

2000s: Blog. 2010s: Blog. 2020s: Blog.

Distribution channels have shifted, but what gets distributed has not (good ideas that entertain, inspire, educate).

Promote yourself, because no one else is going to do it for you.

If you want to be taken seriously, show, don't tell.

You think you know something, until you try writing about it.

There's something you know that others don't know.

Anyone can teach. Anyone can learn.

Teach what you know, and learn what you don't.

Don't tweet for the people that follow you. Tweet for the people you wished followed you.